CSA cooking: herb polenta with grilled veggies & persimmon cookies

basket inventory: bok choy, chard, arugula, beets, guava, limes, persimmons chives, parsley, leeks, 2 kinds of lettuce

(Marge checking out the basket)

i slacked last week with a recipe, so i am doing 3 for this week (sad, i can't even be consistent for a few months!). Fortunately this was also the perfect opportunity to do a few things at once b/c we had our friends Monet and Andrew over for Top Chef (restaurant wars!) and dinner.

HERB POLENTA

• 4 1/2 c water or broth
  
• 1-1 1/2 c coarse cornmeal/polenta
• olive oil, a few tbs
• various fresh herbs
• tomato sauce and herbs/spices that you like with sauce AND/OR
  
• pesto
  
• zucchini and sliced leeks (put you can use other veggies if you want, this is what we had)
• s&p
  

(mixing the veggies for baking)

first i prepped the leeks and zucchini, mixed them in a bowl with olive oil, spicy salt and a little pepper (you can use garlic if you want), put them on a baking sheet and put in a 350 oven for 20-30 min.
boil the water/broth. slowly whisk the polenta in. at this point, you need to be on it-it gets thick fast and you don't want it to burn or burn you right? you will also have to quickly switch mixing items-use a wooden spoon. once it thickens, add some olive oil and the fresh herbs. the entire cooking time should be between 15 and 20 min.
spread on a baking sheet (i used a large la chamba dish) and put in the fridge to cool.

(pay attention now)

once firm, cut into desired shape and grill them!
top with veggies, pesto and/or tom sauce-add cheese on top if you want.

(ready for grilling)

(all it needs is cheese and we are good to go!)

PERSIMMON COOKIES
(this recipe is slightly altered from the one on allrecipes.com)

• 2-3 soft persimmons, pureed
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup cane or white sugar
• 1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
• 1 cup raisins, nuts or both or other dried fruit

heat the oven to 350.
bowl #1: blend b.soda in persimmon puree. bowl #2: sift flour, spices and salt. bowl #3: cream butter with sugar and egg.
add bowl #1 to bowl #3-mix. slowly add bowl #2 to #3, add nuts/dried fruit.
spoon on a cookie sheet for 15 min.

these cookies are GOOD!